please empty your brain below

Hehehe. Bang on about Emma.

I got the District Line on Wednesday night and realised I'd miss those old train interiors - especially the bus moquette seats. Being a south Londoner, those old trains (okay, they were about 5 years old or something) were a bit magic when I was a kid. I might nip over for one last hold on the dangly wotsits...

The district line is a f*cking nightmare.

(in a slight design faux pas) they were built with single doors

I understand that the logic here was that most train faults were door problems so if you reduce the number of doors by 50\\% you reduce the number of failures by 50\\%. Unfortunately the logic was flawed and in addition tube use went up and not down as expected. Lateral thinking doesn't always provide better solutions.

The reason Underground trains are painted nowadays, rather than left as bare aluminium, isn't really about corporate branding. It's much easier to clean graffiti off the painted trains than the unpainted ones.

I'm going to miss the bobbles. I always tried to make 2 boobles smack togther when I was a bored commuter.

Ah, there was that other design faux pas with these trains - which IIRC made them rather unpleasant to travel on when they were first introduced: no opening windows at all (apart from the slide-down ones on the inter-carriage emergency doors). Far too hot inside. They only added the opening windows (and changed half of the double-glazed windows to single-glazed) after a few short years in service.

The more recent minor revamp trains these (unrefurbished) trains got gave them an absolutely horrendous seat moquette (as your photo with the pigeons shows) - probably even more horrific than the original one.... I think the refurbished ones look smart, mind.

It always struck me as odd that they would go to the expense of refurbishing these trains just to replace them in 2013.

I've not been in London for quite a while. Do the refurbished trains still have those odd single seats.. that were always so popular on the "old" D Stock..??

It's the floors I shall miss. They must have been a bugger to clean but whenever I saw them (which wasn't very often) they were terribly impressive.

Those floors were a nightmare when you were wearing stiletto heels.

So that's goodbye to the last of the tube trains with bouncy seats. What a shame, that was one of the things that I really enjoyed about the D Stock.

I was just thinking earlier in the week that it had been a while since I'd see the old style ridged floor trains.
It's a shame to see them go.

"Gone were the classic ridged maple floors, replaced with sparkly vomit-resistant underfoot plastic"

The maple floor actually copes better with alcoholic sick as it just runs away in rivulets, an inch below people's feet.

Now any drunk on the train can cause a slipping hazard.

Progress?

Also, are the trains with eth intermittent air conditioning fans revamped D-stock, or completely new trains?

....Be warned also that the train is likely to be full of last-train-riding transport geeks with cameras..

Can it really be 30 years since I saw "our" correspondent "Bow Road" chalking on the side of the last CO/CP Stock journey at Ealing Broadway..?
My, how times flies..

I hope he won't deny it

I too will miss the ridged wooden floors... the first time I saw one of the 'new' stock I was most disappointed - I'm even more disappointed that I won't be able to make one of the last journeys today!

I don't deny chalking - anyone got a photo of that? BTW the original seats were black/brown/yellow, not flamed red, in true Abigail's Party-style and of a pattern originally designed for "Speedbus", a 1970s proposed network of limited stop LT bus services. When this fell through it was used on D78 and 1983 Stock, plus T and M class buses.

I'm looking forward to driving you all on the train's final trip this evening.

Thanks for the plug for my forum - that's always welcome.

Geeks - nah - the members there are proper enthusiasts with a passion for the subject. Oh - OK - well maybe just a little geekish but what the hell!

I liked the black/brown/yellow colour scheme.

Bow Road wrote.. I don't deny chalking - anyone got a photo of that?
Oh dear, time certainly does something with the memory.. I checked out where I had seen the photo.. and it appears on P.43 of the Capital Transport Scrapbook for 1978. But it was taken at Edgware (not Ealing) on 14/04.1978 Last red 1938 stock on the Northern Line. BUT, I do remember you at Ealing Bdy too.. I just got the two events mixed up. Apologies

Like my colleague District Dave driving the final trip to Ealing tonight ... I shall also look forward to welcoming you aboard, I shall be driving the first trip with the "silver bullet" from Upminster this afternoon. I shall aim to give a nice smile for all so called "geeks with cameras" lol. Nice to know that the passing of something known and loved (or hated) is rousing nostalgic interest !

I have some fond memories of the old style District line tube trains, as I always used to travel on them when I was a kid. I always used to to believe that they had a rather spooky but charming air about them, and I always used to like trying to grab hold of those dangly bobbles (a lot more fun, IMHO, than the boring grab rails you get today). The last time I used one of these old style trains was between St. James's Park and Embankment last year on the way to work, and it's sad to think I shall never catch one of these trains again.

First the Routemaster buses, and now the tube trains with dangly bobbles. Why do they insist on removing these characterful and splendid London transport icons?

First the Routemaster buses, and now the tube trains with dangly bobbles. Why do they insist on removing these characterful and splendid London transport icons?

Because, like Paris Hilton, they're pretty but not much use. RMs are dangerous and can't take disabled people; dangly bobbles are no use to short people and don't take into account different sizes (i.e. fat b*st*rds...)

I think the "dangly bobbles" actually reached lower down than the replaceming horizontal handrails so are actually less useful to the "vertically-challenged".

Those wooden floors look wonderful...such a shame they will be lost.

Hold on... Paris Hilton, pretty?











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